Einstein and the Ether
(paperback, 242 pages; ISBN 0-9683689-4-8)

Ludwik Kostro

Although Einstein is widely credited with abolishing the ether concept, he actually introduced a new relativistic ether in 1916, developing the idea in his later works.

The story of Einstein and the rebirth of the ether

Excerpts from the Foreword by Max Jammer

About the Author

Table of contents  

From the Foreword by Prof. Max Jammer

Einstein, as Kostro shows in great detail, acknowledged only three kinds of ether. But what Einstein called “ether” is no longer a rarified material medium that permeates all space, but rather the much more abstract geometrodynamic constituent of spacetime which determines the inertio-gravitational behavior of matter… We must be indebted to Professor Kostro for having devoted himself to study in such detail this facet of Einstein’s work and for drawing our attention to this generally unknown chapter in the scientific biography of the man whom the periodical Time recently named “Person of the Century.”

Table of Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1

Einstein’s views on the ether before 1905

1.1 First notions of electromagnetism and the ether

1.2 Einstein’s youthful “scientific work” on the ether and magnetic field

1.3. Einstein designs experiments to confirm the Earth’s motion through the ether

1.4. Einstein’s first doubts about the existence of the ether and the electrodynamics of his time

1.5 Conceptual premises for doubts concerning the ether

Chapter 2

Einstein denies the existence of the ether (1905-1916)

2.1. Works published before the Special Relativity Theory

2.2 The ether becomes superfluous

2.6 Beginnings of the General Theory of Relativity

2.7 Einstein finds a new argument against the ether

2.8 Other works in which Einstein rejects the ether

2.9 Origin of the dispute between Einstein and Lenard

2.10    Minkowski’s four-dimensional world

2.11    Einstein on the path to the new ether

2.12    Summary

Chapter 3

Einstein introduces his new concept of the ether (1916-1924)

3.1 Correspondence with Lorentz, polemic with Lenard

3.2 The new ether concept in the “Morgan Manuscript”

3.3 The anti-Einstein campaign over the ether

3.4 Preparations for an extensive presentation of the new ether concept

3.5 The Einstein–Lenard debate in Bad Nauheim

3.6 Lenard’s reaction to Einstein’s response

3.7 Weyl replies to Lenard’s objections

3.8 Einstein’s inaugural lecture in Leiden

3.9 Eddington’s relativistic ether

3.10    Weyl’s improved version of the relativistic ether

3.11    Kaluza’s pentadimensional world

3.12    Einstein’s second major work on the new ether

3.13    Evolution of Einstein’s epistemological views

Chapter 4

Development of Einstein’s ether concept (1925-1955)

4.1 Einstein’s first attempt to solve the unification problem

4.2 The Kaluza-Klein pentadimensional continuum

4.3 Space-time continuum with teleparallelism

4.4 Four-dimensional space-time with pentavectors

4.5 Anti-Einstein campaign. Einstein leaves Europe

4.6 Elementary particles as “portions” of space

4.7 History of ether continued in relativity theory

4.8 Material nature of the space-time continuum

4.9 New attempt to improve Kaluza’s theory

4.10    Einstein finally rejects Kaluza’s theory

4.11    The theory of bivector fields

4.12    A new attempt to generalise General Relativity

4.13    Asymmetric field—return to the 1925 idea

4.14    Changes in Einstein’s views on physical space

4.15    Did Einstein stop using the term “ether” after 1938?

4.16    New editions of Einstein’s works on the new ether

4.17    Did the idea of a relativistic ether survive?

Chapter 5

Physical meaning of Einstein’s relativistic ether

5.1 Einstein stresses the model-like nature of physical cognition

5.2 Einstein’s space-time models and contemporary physics

5.3. Three models of Einstein’s relativistic ether

5.4. Essential attributes of Einstein’s ether

5.5 “Physical space,” “ether,” “field”: are they synonymous?

5.6 Should the expressions “new ether” and “relativistic ether” be used today?

Appendix

Original Quotations

Bibliography

Index of Proper Names

 About the Author

Ludwik Kostro studied physics and philosophy at the "Sapienza" University and the Gregorian University in Rome from 1963 to 1970. In 1975 he joined the University of Gdańsk, until 1994 as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor in the Physics Institute and from 1994 onward as a Full Professor in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, of which he served as Director. He is presently Director of the Department for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science at the same University. Since 1988 he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Physics Essays (Ottawa, Canada). He is a member of the board of the Interdivisional Group of History of Physics at the European Society of Physics, and serves on the Scientific Committee of the International Conferences on Physical Interpretations of Relativity Theory held every two years at Imperial College in London and sponsored by the British Society for Philosophy of Science. Since 1986 he has been Secretary of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the Gdansk Scientific Society. He is the author of 79 scientific papers in physics and philosophy, as well as several books, e.g., Eros, Sex and Abortion in the Critical Catholicism (Scientia, 1999). He has been awarded a number of major prizes. The French Government decorated him with the Les Palmes Académiques medal.